13 Dangerous Abandoned Kodi Repos That You Need to Uninstall Now

Kodi's game of "whack-a-mole" in 2017 left a ton of Kodi users with abandoned Kodi repos, posing very serious security and privacy risks to millions of people. Here is a list of abandoned Kodi repos that you need to uninstall right now!

The Kodi Repo Aftermath in 2018 and Beyond

For those of you that were “playing the game”, your repositories list in Kodi is probably a graveyard.

Many of the repositories that you have installed became abandoned, and in many cases, the domain expired.

When a domain expires, anyone can snatch it up which poses a huge security risk!

Major Security and Privacy Risks with Abandoned Kodi Repos

Think about it for a second. If you have a repository installed on your Kodi box, and that developer quit and let their domain expire, anybody can buy that domain and put something on it that will essentially give them access and control of your Kodi box.

We’ve seen before, with the case of the Blamo repo automatically pushing their Wraith and Chappa’ai add-ons, how a repository owner can easily mark that they have a newer version of a popular add-on, and give that add-on whatever dependencies they want, and in doing so, can push all kinds of software to your Kodi box without you even knowing!

Here are a couple likely scenarios to consider…

Hackers Install Malware on Your Kodi Box

The first thing that would come to mind considering this ability for anyone to install software on your Kodi box is a hacker. Yes, a malicious hacker could easily buy one of these expired domains and start deploying their malware to your box.

This malware could be used to:

Hijack your machine

Steal your personal information

Use your machine in DDoS attacks

Lock your machine for ransom

Infect other computers on your network

Honeypot Sting Reports You to Copyright Holders or Law Firms

This one may not be so obvious at first, but it’s alarmingly plausible when you think about it.

I’m always hearing in the news about huge TV/movie studios and media conglomerates banding together to go after piracy / copyright infringement cases. They are very motivated, and they’re cracking down on piracy more and more.

Someone could simply buy one of those expired domains, inject a tracker on a popular plugin, and release it as a new version available for automatic update.

They would let it run for a while, collecting everyone’s IP addresses and streaming history… all while being completely undetected.

When they’ve collected enough data, they would sell it to copyright holders or law firms who would start going after people… even if just to make an example out of some.

How to Protect Yourself

So what’s stopping someone from taking advantage of this situation? Nothing.

But, at least you can protect yourself. Here’s how…

#1 – Uninstall These Abandoned Kodi Repositories Immediately

The below repositories are abandoned. While some of them might still work, it may only be a matter of time before the developer lets the domain expire (at which time it might be too late). Uninstall these repositories from any of your Kodi installations to hopefully avoid the above security and privacy risks.

To uninstall repositories in Kodi, go to the add-on browser > My add-ons > Add-on repository, select one of them, and then select “Uninstall”.

If it won’t let you uninstall a repository because you still have an add-on installed that depends on it, you will need to uninstall that add-on first.

#2 – Make Sure You’re Using a VPN

While the above list is helpful now, it may not be a complete list, and there’s no telling how many more repositories will be abandoned in the future.

But, if you’re using a Kodi VPN, you greatly reduce your risk of privacy invasion. For instance, in the scenario with the honeypot sting, they might only be capturing your IP address which would be masked by your VPN.

For my two bucks, I am very skittish in trusting addons that popup one day, then everyone claims it is the best and then a week later, the addon dies or have been taken down. For the simple Joe like, me I think I’ll just stay with trusted addons that I have had for a few months. I will say this, it is getting harder to keep reliable addons. So many popup and then die a few days later. But that’s the disadvantage of free TV.

No I didnt ck how much space it takes up. It’s really a great tool for backups and it works great every time. I’ll probably be deleting it soon, I just completed an Aftermath Wizard (with a lot of help) that does maintenece.

I think Nate is right on the money. The list that you see is a minimum of which addons that has been confirmed. Beware of addons the promise the moon and deliver bad tidings. Free TV is a good thing, but there are those that would rater harm than help; it is part of human nature. For us, our family uses Covenant, Gaia and PLEX. More than that, you’re probably just wasting good space and resources if you have more than two or three addons, especially addons that are pretty stable. Having a VPN is a very good idea, but be leery free VPN services. They keep logs and will surrender your data and logs at a drop of the hat.

*KinkeadTech has no affiliation with Kodi, any add-ons, repos, or builds. KinkeadTech.com is a news and informational website which does not support or condone copyright infringement. Kodi should only be used with content that is bought and owned personally or is in the public domain.